fl.findObjectInDocByType()

#### Availability

Flash CS3 Professional.

#### Usage

fl.findObjectInDocByType(elementType, document)

#### Parameters

elementType A string that represents the type of element to search for. For acceptable values, see
element.elementType (../Element_object/element1.md).

document The Document object (../Document_object/document_summary.md) in which to search for the specified item.

#### Returns

An array of generic objects. Use the .obj property of each item in the array to get the element object. Each object has the following properties: keyframe, layer, timeline, and parent. You can use these properties to access the hierarchy of the object.

You can also access methods and properties for the layer and timeline values; they are equivalent to the Layer object (../Layer_object/layer_summary.md) and the Timeline object (../Timeline_object/timeline_summary.md), respectively.

The second and third examples in the Examples section show how to access these properties.

#### Description

Method; exposes elements of a specified element type in a document.

Note: In some cases, this method works only when run as a command from within a FLA file, not when you are currently viewing or editing the JSFL file.

#### Example

The following example searches the current document for text fields and then changes their contents:

javascript

var doc = fl.getDocumentDOM();

var typeToSearchFor = "text";

var results = fl.findObjectInDocByType(typeToSearchFor, doc);

if (results.length > 0) {

for (var i = 0; i < results.length; i++) {

results[i].obj.setTextString("new text");

}

alert("success, found " + results.length + " objects");

}

else {

alert("failed, no objects of type " + typeToSearchFor + " found");

}

The following example shows how to access the special properties of the object returned by this method:

javascript

var doc = fl.getDocumentDOM();

var resultsArray = findObjectInDocByType("text", doc);

if (resultsArray.length > 0)

{

var firstItem = resultsArray[0];

// firstItem.obj- This is the element object that was found.

// You can access the following properties of this object:

// firstItem.keyframe- The keyframe that the element is on.

// firstItem.layer- The layer that the keyframe is on.

// firstItem.timeline- The timeline that the layer is on.

// firstItem.parent- The parent of the timeline. For example,

// the timeline might be in a symbol instance.

}

The following example shows how to back up the DOM to find the name of a layer on which a text field was found, using the resultArray.obj object:

javascript

var doc = fl.getDocumentDOM();

var typeToSearchFor = "text";

var resultsArray = fl.findObjectInDocByType(typeToSearchFor, doc);

if (resultsArray.length > 0) {

for (var i = 0; i < resultsArray.length; i++) {

resultsArray[i].obj.setTextString("new text");

var firstItem = resultsArray[0];

firstItemObj = firstItem.obj;

fl.trace(firstItemObj.layer.name+"layerName");

}

} else {

alert("failed, no objects of type " + typeToSearchFor + " found");

}

#### See also

fl.findObjectInDocByName() (../flash_object_(fl)/fl27.md)